Member loyalty is arguably the most important part of club leadership. Loyal members means a full roster and that makes your job easier. A full roster means higher dues revenue. More capital projects get funded and maintenance bills are no longer such a concern. You do not have to spend so much time and energy recruiting new members and instead you can focus on the long-term strategy of the club. A club with a full roster has a feeling of vibrancy and “the place to be.”
This is an upward spiral where increased activity encourages members to come more often. As the adage goes, “volume cures all.” Perhaps the saying is not true in the strictest sense, but the sentiment surely is. A full roster cures a lot.
Researchers have looked at loyalty from virtually every hospitality industry, however, not much academic information directly addresses this topic within the club setting. Adapting loyalty research from restaurants, recreation management or tourism viewpoints may suggest best practices, but they are incomplete. The club experience (i.e., member needs) is simply unique. Clubs may include restaurants, golf courses and pools but clubs are much more than the sum of their parts. Focusing on how to increase member loyalty, the National Club Association and researchers at Iowa State University have partnered to conduct research on member behavior, producing a series of three articles. The first article, published in the summer 2020 issue of Club Director, focused on psychological ownership and group identity; the second one, in this article, pays attention to attachment; lastly, the final article will examine service quality.
This article focuses on how members become attached to their club and how that attachment is related to satisfaction and loyalty. In this research project, we examined attachment in four perspectives: members’ club identity, club dependence, social bonding and affective attachment. Satisfaction was identified as an important factor that leads to attachment, which will eventually increase loyalty. Further we looked at loyalty in two aspects: attitudinal (e.g., commitment) and behavior (e.g., membership renewal), and hypothesized that the four aspects of attachment would affect loyalty differently. Additionally, we wanted a clearer understanding of how satisfaction increased loyalty in club members as well. The figure describes our research model.
Satisfaction
Within the contexts of this paper we will define satisfaction as the degree to which a product/service meets the needs of the members. Most researchers agree that satisfaction is essentially the difference between what a person expects and what a person receives. For example, if a member has high expectations but receives merely good service, the member is likely to be dissatisfied because the comparison is negative. However, if the member has low expectations but receives that same (merely good) service, the comparison is positive, and the member is satisfied. In this way, service quality is a primary driver of satisfaction. There are many other drivers of satisfaction (i.e., value, delight, novelty, etc.), but club members seem to focus on service quality more than other factors.
Attachment
Attachment refers to an emotional bond between a person and a target. Originally, attachment theory was used to explain the bond between mother and child; however, psychologists have used the concept of attachment to explain how people can become attached to places and things as well. For example, place attachment describes how a place becomes meaningful in a person’s mind. You may get nostalgic when you think of your hometown. Perhaps you and your partner have a special restaurant where you go to celebrate. If so, these places have meaning, and you have an attachment toward them.
Attachment has four aspects: place identity, place dependence, social bonding, and affective attachment.
Place identity describes how a place and a person’s identity become intertwined. Of all the clubs in your area, is yours the “family club?” Mostly likely, it got that identity because the members are younger and have children. Or is your club known for having the best golf course? If so, your members see themselves more as golfers and are more concerned with the stimp ratings than they are with the wine list. Research has shown that when a person shares an identity with a place, they are more loyal to it.
Place dependence is comparative. Some researchers describe place dependence as the functional aspect of attachment. High place dependence implies that a person cannot enjoy the experience as much in a different setting. In other words, a person is more likely to develop an attachment toward a place if it provides a better setting in which to enjoy the experience. A member is more likely to become attached to a club if they feel it provides amenities that are superior to other clubs. This is not the same as satisfaction, however. Place dependence is the setting in which the service is provided whereas satisfaction is the manner in which the service is provided. Place dependence tends to develop earlier and more strongly than other attachment dimensions.
Social bonding refers to the friends and family a person associates with a place. For example, you may still have friends that date back to your childhood. If so, these relationships contribute to your sense of attachment to your grade school or to the neighborhood where you grew up. The first article showed social connections are very important to the membership experience. Group identity contributed to satisfaction and loyalty. Social bonding within the concept of attachment theory describes how these ties build a sense of place. A club is an ideal setting for strengthening social relationships—a member becomes more attached to their club because it provides the environment in which they can interact with other members.
Affective attachment is strictly the emotional response to a place. This is the concept that describes a person’s “favorite table” in a restaurant. Affective attachment is what comes to mind when most people think of attachment in general. But as described above, it is only one aspect of attachment. That said, marketers have long known that emotions are strong behavioral motivators. A person tends to be more resolute in their opinions if they have an emotional component.
Loyalty
This article provides a comprehensive view on loyalty in two perspectives: attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty while the first article limited our focus to just overall loyalty because we wanted to concentrate on psychological ownership and group identity. Attitudinal loyalty is a person’s opinion of a brand/product (e.g., club). When a member says they like their club more than other clubs or if they feel better when they use their club they’re talking about their attitudinal loyalty. Behavioral loyalty on the other hand is the act of being loyal. For example, a member who continues to pay their membership dues is exhibiting behavioral loyalty. A member who recommends their club to others (word of mouth) or is willing to pay a higher price is behaviorally loyal. The two loyalty perspectives are conceptually different although they are obviously related. There are differing opinions, but many researchers feel that attitudinal loyalty leads to behavioral loyalty.
Once attitudinal loyalty is established in the member’s mind, the person is highly reluctant to go elsewhere. It would be very difficult for a competing club to lure that member from your club. If the member felt your club was superior to others, why they would want to go elsewhere? You might logically conclude then, that attitudinal loyalty is most important. However, there is nothing in attitudinal loyalty that actually links a member to a dues check. A person may be attitudinally loyal, but if it doesn’t translate to a purchase, the point is moot. Attitudinal loyalty is purely about attitude.
You might then think that behavioral loyalty is most important. After all, this is the perspective which influences the bottom line. It doesn’t matter how a member feels about their club as long as they do not quit the membership roster, right? Technically that’s true but it’s the wrong approach. High behavioral/low attitudinal loyalty is very tenuous. Cable and phone companies are often cited examples of this scenario. As long as there were no other alternative, people were forced to deal with poor service. However, as soon as alternatives presented themselves, people left in droves. People with high behavioral/low attitudinal loyalty are angry and resent their situation. In clubs, it can actually be more serious. For many reasons that are outside the scope of this paper, club members are even less inclined to leave when they are unhappy. They are then left with the only alternative available, which is to complain. In other words, high behavioral/low attitudinal loyalty in clubs means lots of members sticking around complaining. The only thing worse than people who complain and then leave are customers who complain and then stay only to keep complaining. Both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty are equally important.
Findings and Implications
The figure (location/page number) illustrates our research model. The arrows describe the effects we examined. For example, there is a direct effect of attitudinal loyalty on behavioral loyalty as represented by the arrow between the two constructs in the corresponding chart. We found that an increase in attitudinal loyalty caused an increase in behavioral loyalty of about half as much. On the other hand, there is a direct arrow between satisfaction and behavioral loyalty and an indirect arrow from satisfaction to behavioral loyalty that goes through attitudinal loyalty. In other words, satisfaction leads to an increase in behavioral loyalty directly, but satisfaction also increases attitudinal loyalty and it is that increase that subsequently affects behavioral loyalty as well. By following the arrows, one can see multiple ways in which behavioral loyalty is increased.
Satisfaction to Attachment. Satisfaction increased all four dimensions of attachment. Moreover, the strengths of each relationship were very strong and nearly equal to each other. In other words, the more a member tends to be satisfied, the more they tend to be attached to their club overall. A satisfied member tends to incorporate the upscale nature of their club into their own self-identity. As well, a satisfied member tends to feel that their club is better than other clubs, whether or not this is intrinsically true. Satisfaction also improves social bonding, most likely because it removes impediments to social interactions. Consider how difficult it is to enjoy your friends/family when you are distracted by poor service. Lastly, high satisfaction over an extended period leads to an overall positive emotional attachment.
Satisfaction to Loyalty. As expected, satisfaction leads to loyalty. More importantly, we found that satisfaction was much more closely linked to attitudinal loyalty than it was to behavioral loyalty. The direct effect from satisfaction to behavioral loyalty was statistically significant; however, the weight of the effect was quite small. Indirect effects were generally small as well but because they were more numerous, they added to a large overall effect. The most influential indirect effects flowed through attitudinal loyalty. For the most part, satisfaction causes many downstream effects which improve attitudinal loyalty, which then leads to increased behavioral loyalty.
Attachment to loyalty. Out of the four attachment aspects, place dependence attachment was strongly associated with attitudinal loyalty and with behavioral loyalty, both directly and indirectly through attitudinal loyalty. Members who reported that their club was the best in terms of amenities also reported higher attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. Place dependence is needs-based, meaning that members are most loyal to clubs that provide the services they want most. Managers should actively determine what the members need and then try to meet those needs in the best possible manner. This is easier said than done but the basic fundamentals of service effectively generates loyalty.
In addition, social bonding predicted attitudinal loyalty directly, but there was no direct effect on behavioral loyalty (only the indirect effect through attitudinal). These findings, taken together with the first article, imply that members tend to form emotional attachments to each other rather than to the club. The first article showed that a stronger connection to the other members led to stronger satisfaction with the club overall. Clubs are highly social—and managers should emphasize that. The emotional attachments lead to other things, which then lead to loyalty, so the effects may not be as readily apparent. Social bonding had an effect on loyalty, but it is likely to have stronger indirect effects through group identity not specifically examined in this model.
However, no relationship was found between place identity or affective attachment and either attitudinal or behavioral loyalty. These concepts do not appear to directly influence loyalty. This does not mean that they are unimportant though. Indeed, in the previous article we found similar concepts to be very important. It is likely that place identity and affective attachment play a more subliminal role on loyalty. For example, place identity attachment may encourage a sense of belonging that is more closely linked to psychological ownership. Members may also have stronger emotional ties to other members than they would to the club itself as well, meaning the effect on loyalty would be felt more indirectly through group identity.
Implications for Loyalty
These findings have several implications. They reinforce the fact that satisfied members lead to loyal members—both attitudinally and behaviorally. Moreover, the satisfaction to loyalty routes are diverse and are therefore more stable. If, for example, a particular member is somehow immune to the effects of place dependence, the total reduction in loyalty is relatively minor. Satisfaction can still contribute a great deal to loyalty based on the other routes.
The findings also show that while members become attached to their clubs in different ways, the one that best drives loyalty is a club’s ability to provide superior service and amenities. Place dependence was the attachment dimension that contributed most to loyalty (both attitudinal and behavioral). Managers should focus on providing services and amenities that best meet the needs of the members. Providing superior service will increase loyalty directly through the satisfaction to loyalty route. Additionally, the members will feel that they cannot get a better membership experience at a different club, which will discourage them from leaving.
Managers should focus on the basic fundamentals of providing the best service possible. The formula may sound simple but putting it into practice is far less so. In the next edition of Club Director, we’ll discuss what those fundamentals are—service quality. We’ll examine what members consider when they think about service at their club and provide a checklist to use to measure service quality at your club.
The researchers wish to acknowledge the National Club Association for their generous support with data collection without which this study would not have been possible.
Fredrick “Chuck” Meitner is a PhD Candidate in the Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management Department at Iowa State University and an Assistant Professor in the Hospitality, Recreation, Tourism Management Department at East Stroudsburg University. He conducts research on private club member behavior, service and operations management and mental health among hospitality workers. He is also an aspiring sommelier. Chuck has 20 years’ experience in private clubs, both in the kitchen and the dining room. He can be reached at [email protected]
Dr. SoJung Lee is an Associate Professor in the Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management Department at Iowa State University. Her research focuses on consumer behaviors in pop-culture tourism, club industry, rural tourism, and sustainable tourism from psychological perspectives. Her current research projects include clubs’ environmental sustainability and members’ psychological and sociological behaviors. She can be reached at [email protected].